They Want Your Eyes
by Tokyo Huntress
Summary: Both Coraline and Kubo have had strange experiences with the supernatural. But they both have been lucky enough to survive their experiences - unfortunately for them, they are stuck switching roles and encountering dangers from the past, still wanting the same thing from them. Will they survive their encounters with these creatures? Or will they fall victim to the enemy?
1. Chapter 1

An aching pain ran through the boy's head as he lied on the floor. His hand fidgeted and moved around the floor, trying to grasp onto the instrument he was known for. But he couldn't feel anything.  
Kubo eventually sat up, looking to each side. Where was his shamisen!? He looked with his one eye at the floor, briefly hearing moaning. He heard footsteps, pounding ones. Somebody was coming. Having no way to properly defend himself, he had to stay out of sight. Running around the corner, he backed away, his back touching a cold mirror. Kubo felt any balance he once had disappear, falling backwards and into a new room. He was lying on the floor, his elbows slightly scraped from how abruptly he fell through.  
Suddenly Kubo heard a noise. He looked in the direction of the sound, but while his eye was having trouble adjusting to the darkness around him, he could see a familiar shape.  
His shamisen.  
Pluck.  
He didn't know who was playing his shamisen at first, but the fact that anyone that couldn't be seen was playing it half-worried him, the other half wanting to just see who these people were. One by one, three floating figures...spirits, appeared. All three looked different...but there was one thing they all had in common.  
The buttons.  
Instead of big to small eyes with an orb of colour, they were replaced with big, black buttons, stitched in the place where the children's eyes should have been. One of them looked up at him as Kubo could only come out with one question, "Who...who are you...?" he questioned; not frightened of these beings - more horror over one question. How did these spirits end up like this?  
The girl who was looking up at him was the first to answer him, "Don't remember my true name..." she mumbled, showing a sign of sadness. "Your...instrument...is very, very nice, sir. What...what is it called?"  
"It's a shamisen," Kubo answered her as he did manage to get the thought that jumping straight to the question going through his head would just be out-of-place. A taller spirit with a face of perpetual horror turned to him,  
"You're wondering...who did this...The Beldam."  
"The...The Beldam?"  
"Yes...she spied on our lives through the little doll's eyes...and saw that we weren't she lured us away with treasures and treats, and games to play, gave all that we asked. Yet we still wanted we let her sew the buttons. She said that she loved us. But she locked us here...and ate up our lives. Until...she came; she gave us our eyes, returned them to us. But now The Beldam has abducted you...we're stuck back here - our eyes gone again."  
Kubo listened, he almost saw the story unfold - each one being lured in by this Beldam, being happier, only for their hopes to be torn apart and their lives taken from them. Their eyes taken from them, losing their true humanity and being trapped as ghosts in this one place. "I'll find your eyes." Kubo vowed, before one of the ghost girls, namely the one who'd been playing it in the first place, handed his shamisen back to him.  
Soon enough, Kubo found himself nodding and finding an escape out of the mirror. He ran throughout the house, but it seemed more like a maze. It never seemed to end, the walls extending further and further and never stopping again. He stopped abruptly, hearing a cold, chilling voice, it almost seemed to be singing. Singing his name, in fact."Kubo...? Come now; you could be happier here. You wouldn't need to remember what happened to...your mother...! Or your father, or any of your other friends..."  
As his breaths became heavy, Kubo was paralyzed for a second. The memory of being taken away from his mother. Monkey, the last part of his mother that he'd had slowly perishing. Beetle, the very little of his father that he'd had during his journey being struck down right before him.  
Returning to reality, Kubo was about to run only for his red robes, his father's robes to be caught on a long spider-like leg with a terrifying figure coming towards him. She possessed a paper white face covered with cracks and was extremely thin - one push would seem to tear her in half. Her hands weren't even made up of flesh, with needles at the tips of her fingers.  
Ready to take his last eye and replace them with buttons, take his soul. The Other Mother chuckled at his attempts to get away from her. Kubo had to think of something, grabbing desperately at his shamisen, he began playing, making the paper spawn, growing figures of their own and knocking the Other Mother back thanks to rapid attacks towards her.  
Suddenly, Kubo heard a pounding from behind him. This was his chance! As he ran out, he could hear someone pursuing him. The words distorting, he slammed the door shut before leaning on the wall beside him, desperately trying to breathe. He barely caught it again, shaking slightly as those memories flashed before his eye. Wincing slightly, he looked up and saw a silhouette passing by the moon. He knew he had to return - his village needed him, his grandfather needed him. And right now - those children needed him, needed him to get their eyes back, so they could move on, regain their last parts of humanity.  
Soon Kubo was sprinting towards a garden in the distance - it just seemed so elaborate that it seemed to be a place where a ghost eye could be hidden. As he walked through the garden, he shuddered slightly as he noticed one thing. The silence. This couldn't be good - that was what he knew for sure.  
Tempted to play his shamisen, Kubo moved his hands further from the three strings in case he would be attacked. He glanced around for the eye...  
He suddenly turned around, seeing blue flowers that almost seemed to have mouths, coming straight at his legs. He dodged the first time, knowing he couldn't just walk around now. Kubo glanced again, seeing them coming at him repeatedly - the third time, one grabbed his ankle, making him lose balance long enough for another and another and another to grab him. Kubo dropped his shamisen, but he desperately tried to grab it. It was pulling him in...!  
Kubo knew he had to think fast. Noticing a sharp but strange item, he gripped onto it before being wrapped up by these plants. Although Kubo struggled to exhale as these plants forcefully encased him in their grasp, he cut through the roots as quickly as he could, how he managed to do it so quickly...well, he was unsure.  
Once he'd cut them, the plants slowly returned to where they'd once been, leaving the boy a chance to regain some breath. Kubo noticed it earlier though - the buzzing. Turning around, he grabbed his shamisen tightly, before quickly beginning to play. It was like the other way around - when he'd been out in the cold barren wasteland known as The Ice Fields, he'd played a bit of a trick on Monkey, accidentally spawning birds and mosquitoes. Now he was in her place; but obviously this wasn't just a trick.  
The wasps were trying to grab something from him. The strings! Unfortunately, one pulled off the strand of his mother's hair, another taking off the white string that had once been apart of his father's bow which had found it's way to Beetle, then to him, but now in the mouths of wasps.  
Kubo's eye suddenly narrowed in a near furious manner, anger burning within them, not tolerating these creatures taking one of the few physical pieces of his mother and father he always had with him. Running straight at them as he took off a part of the bridge's railing and threw it in their direction, causing their descent. He immediately ran to where they'd landed, quickly re-attaching the strings to his shamisen.  
Click-clack.  
Click-clack.  
Click-clack.  
"What...?" he muttered to himself, noticing a man sitting in a strange way, hunched over, hands limp and on top of a round item, impossible to see due to the darkness that cloaked it.  
"Ssssoorrry...shhhee...Mothherrrrrrrr's...makkkkinggggg me..." a low, croaky voice hummed out, finally revealing itself.  
The description had been correct alright. Metal legs like needles came towards the boy with the shamisen rapidly, the first one coming down hard enough to knock him over. He crawled away at first, but soon got a firm hold of his senses as he pushed himself back to his feet. Glancing behind him, Kubo could tell from the heavy structure that it could easily fall through the bridge.  
Not that he hadn't understood - 'Mother's making me.'  
The Other Mother, the Beldam of course.  
This man in with a gangly and stick-like form was being forced into this and if Kubo were to be perfectly honest, he didn't want to kill this man. He was smart enough to hear it. It was as if the Beldam was a puppet master, better than his shamisen's magic controlled his origami and papers. A manipulator.  
He had every right to think that, looking back at the three Ghost Children he had encountered back in that dark room, the only door being a mirror.  
Suddenly the strange moving creature laid its feet on the light wooden bridge, breaking a lot more then he'd hoped for, as it wasn't just this man that collapsed as bits of wood fell through underneath his feet. Kubo's hands barely managed to grasp onto the wood, hearing the bridge splinter more and more, barely being able to take his weight. Despite this, he reached to the remaining being as it was submerged, but instead of a hand, he felt a strange round ball in his hand. The Ghost Eye. Before going, the figure put his head underneath Kubo's foot so he could get up better.  
Backing away slightly from the weakened part of the bridge, he stared at where the figure (known as the Other Father) had once been. Kubo couldn't help but feel guilt churn in his stomach, a puppet under control, only to break out at the last second and help him before Kubo could do anything to save him.

The ground shook lightly, making him look around him, before noticing the garden, while dark had still had a strange sense of colour, now turned to pure gray stone.

"Thank you, sir...! But there's still two eyes left lost." a male voice called him, the Ghost Boy. Afterwards, he seemed to mutter, "I think miss would like you."  
"Who is this...miss...?" Kubo asked him, tilting his head slightly.  
"Coraline..." the voice drifted away soon after, the face fading away.  
"Don't worry; I'll get all three of your eyes back. It's a promise." Kubo said, before going to find the next two eyes.  
As he walked out of the gray garden, the boy couldn't help the questions floating through his head - more than three in fact. Why did this Beldam abduct him? She seemed weak and frail, like she was starving. Did...did she need the souls of children to survive? That was horrible. He must have been apart of some last strange ditch attempt. A failed ditch attempt, but still a last attempt none the less. One that if he made a wrong move, he wouldn't just lose his soul, but also seem to disappear without any trace as he definitely wasn't in his home, the place he knew the best.  
Suddenly, the sound of light singing bounced around his ears, grabbing Kubo's attention. "Huh...?" he mumbled, only to put the pieces together. "A ghost eye could be in there. I've gotta go in." he added, before going down those stairs with, to be fair, some added confidence.  
But when he went inside, he was disturbed to find a large empty room. Kubo knew better now. Large, silent, empty spaces were a terrible sign of danger, and now, obvious signs. Kubo wasn't going to risk an ambush. Not again.  
A small item lightly touched his feet, making him kneel down, pick it up and mess about slightly with a small addition to it, a light abruptly coming on, the room illuminating. He didn't move, in case he was to be ambushed without a single warning.  
He was right to do so - as the item (known as a flashlight) was directed at different parts of the room, once it had crawled over the roof, dog-like creatures with strange wings were hanging upside down, similar to bats. One loudly hissed at him, making him turn the light off for a moment, making them stop.  
"Guess they don't like light, huh...?" Kubo smirked slightly. Right. He knew what he was doing, at least he thought so anyway. Just don't disturb them, if he didn't annoy them, then perhaps they wouldn't try to kill him. That confidence quickly dissolved when he heard a light turn on, making him turn abruptly. Glancing around, Kubo debated whether or not to climb onto this platform, something told him this was a trap set up for him, or Coraline who had saved the ghost children before.  
To be fair, when told about her, Kubo had wondered about who she was - but now was not the time. He knew that, so he quickly focused back on the strange items dangling in mid-air. Kubo reached inside a bag, only for his eye to meet a strange sight. In basics, it didn't seem too strange, two hands, holding the other. But it was the skin that made it more eerie - one hand was a light shade of red, rather than the colour of flesh, the other a light green. He slowly moved his hands, being able to grasp onto a light ball, almost like a strange new item, smooth.  
But the iron grip in his wrists made him stop in his tracks for a moment.  
"GIVE IT BACK!" the two voices shouted, dragging him towards them as he was stuck on the floor. Kubo tugged his hands back as hard as he could, only managing to get one free for just a moment, but the pinkish-red hand already grasped it.  
Luckily though, Kubo had just enough time to throw it, shutting his eye. "Please let this work...! This needs to work! Come on!" he exclaimed in a quick and haphazardly way.  
As the creatures' rage and longing for blood became clear, the two distorted figures were distracted for long enough to give him a chance to avoid death, but as he looked back, he was forced to see these two female figures be mangled by these strange organisms before turning stone cold.  
A female voice greeted him, "Please hurry, sir! The web is unwinding. You're running out of time before you're gone!"  
Nodding, Kubo sprinted out as quickly as he could, knowing time wasn't on his side. As he was outside, he looked up at the dark and lonely sky, adorned with one large moon, but here; it seemed to be an eternal night.  
Glancing around, Kubo thought to where the last eye could be. The Beldam might have wanted access to them, whether it was to toy with them or take whatever was left, he looked up and saw a staircase. He held his breath as he crept up those white steps, aware that one wrong move could easily mean it would be over.  
Entering the room, trying his best not to fear the time limit that pushed pressure onto his robes, it seemed his senses had heightened; though it was mostly out of fear, or at least that was what he suspected. He heard a presence behind him, but debated whether or not to look back in case of it being a trick.  
"Hello, little boy...! Would this be what you're looking for?"  
The final eye was revealed. Kubo gazed straight in its direction, before stating firmly, "Yes."  
"Honestly; do you think winning this game against her is a good thing?" the cloaked figure asked, crawling around, keeping the ball out of his reach. "You'll just be stuck with that same town, every day, doing the same thing every night-"  
"I'd prefer it that way." Kubo retorted, sighing a bit as he rolled his eye slightly.  
"Instead of staying here with us...!"  
"She _kidnapped_ me; don't know if you've noticed." Kubo said, trying to get the eye, but it was still just out of his reach.  
"If you stay here, you could have whatever you want...alwayyssss!"  
"She. _kidnapped_ me. She took me away from grandfather, my town; I need to return to them!" Kubo responded. He grabbed at the figure's hat, only for thin white rats, almost as narrow as his papers to come out. A figure made out of rats. The ring-leader grabbed the last eye, taking it like it was a toy ball.  
Following after it, he suddenly felt something sticky and strange attach himself to him, which he threw in the direction of the rat with the remaining eye...  
but in doing so, the other two rolled from the pocket and fell out to the steps.  
Only did he realize he'd made a mistake when it shook as he glanced around desperately, only for it to collapse.  
There he was.  
Lying on the ground again, staring up at the moon as a black button's silhouette almost covered it. Kubo's hands desperately reached around for the eye, the two eyes he had gathered. Why couldn't he get up!? Even though the pain from before wasn't as terrible as it was now, like a burning through his spine, he could still get up, surely!  
A horrible sight met his eyes. Trapped staring up there at the cold sky, it turned from a dark world of nothing to a white world that went on forever. Kubo could only crawl, feeling slight relief as he felt three round circles. He smiled slightly, holding it up briefly. "Yes...! Yes...! I've got it; it's not over, I can still-"  
Kubo heard a crack, followed by more and more. He gasped out loud as the terrain around him seemed to completely fall apart. He dragged himself towards the steps, reaching the door, only for him to seem to hang on, his legs dangling. "No...no, no, no, no!" he cried out, desperately trying to push himself up, crawling himself onto the floor, shutting the entry to a fate worse than death, to fall forever, staring at nothing for a painfully long time until you just shut your eyes and forgot all about it.  
Taking a deep breath, Kubo reached into his pocket, exhaling quietly with a pinch of relief as he knew the Ghost Children's eyes were there. He would put them somewhere safer if he could, but he'd woken up in this place with nothing.  
He leaned on the wall, trying to ignore the shooting pain that ran through him every time he made a move. Kubo eventually reached the door, hearing the Beldam speaking behind. He gulped a bit, knowing he was alone. No - he wasn't. He grabbed his shamisen, looking down at the strings and plucking as gently as he could on the two strings. He was never alone as long as he had those two strings with him.  
Smiling a bit, Kubo's hope had been raised as he put on a confident and brave mask as he entered the room, eyes narrowed towards the creature sitting there in front a fire of green.  
"So, you've found the Ghost Eyes...? And you think this'll get you home, do you?" the Beldam asked, a smug snarl on her face.  
Kubo nodded and looked at them, but doubted that she would let him leave, even if he got all three. As it definitely seemed as if she knew of him trying to find the Ghost Eyes.  
"And I doubt you've remembered, you still need to find your own way out of here, don't you?" the Beldam had got at him there. How exactly to get out, Kubo was unaware - even so he racked his brains as hard as he could.  
Kubo looked at the white door, but didn't realize it seemed as if he was answering her. The Beldam unlocked it, and calmly, she announced. "You're wrong, Kuuubooo...this won't lead you there. I guess you're stuck here, aren't you...? All. alone, except with me."  
His hands immediately reached for his shamisen. "No." he replied, quietly. "I'm not alone." his tone having an edge as he began to play, the paper seeming to form into soldiers themselves. One in particular pulled at her hair, getting some out, grasping at the needles and ripping one out - and the button eyes to go along with them.  
"You...YOU LITTLE BRAT!"  
The floor seemed to collapse, Kubo falling to the bottom of a spider web. He tried to move his hands, but could barely do so without tying his shamisen back, unintentionally returning his paper back. Looking up, he heard a laugh, filled with malice. Like a monster in your nightmare, ready to come and get you as you slept.  
Kubo saw the Beldam coming in his direction. He yanked his foot away from the web, kicking the Beldam in the face, knocking her back slightly. He crawled onto the outside, only to feel something on his robe, trying desperately to drag him down. Kicking again, the Beldam let out an inhuman shriek at him. "DON'T LEAVE ME!"  
Kubo's hands grasped the door, tearing it open as he dragged himself through, hands from the ghost eyes gripping the door, making him try to pull it shut. But something strange was that nobody tried to stop them from doing so. Kubo suddenly figured out why as he cried out, dropping and seeming to stop in mid-air. All he could see was white, where was he...?  
"Was...was this what she meant by this wouldn't lead me home...?" he wondered, but for some reason, he couldn't move his mouth. It was as if his body parts had fallen asleep, his arms, his head, his legs, his lips. The only part that hadn't were his eyelids, but they drooped.  
"No...! Must...stay awake. Must...stay...awake..." he muttered, only to go silent.  
Floating in nothingness. Exactly what he had been trying to avoid this whole time.


	2. Chapter 2

"Wybie...!" groaned Coraline Jones, rubbing her head as she sat up, hearing a slight crack. "What exactly made you think performing that ritual was a smart idea!? The last time we got involved with the supernatural-"

"I know but since the holidays were gonna start up and pretty much nobody was gonna be around for the whole month; besides, it said friendship ritual and none of the other ones ever went wrong...!" Wybie responded, fiddling with his hand. "But hey; it hasn't done anything to kill us-"

Coraline seemed to be too busy taking in the scenery, near by a peaceful river in a quiet graveyard without a disturbance anywhere at all...

The blue-haired girl breathed out. "Wybie...we are in FEUDAL JAPAN...!" she told him, looking at him and grabbing the boy's shoulders. She exhaled, almost seeming to laugh a bit - but it was clear she was trying to hide any other emotions that were running within her. "We are stuck! In Feudal...Japan. JAPAN, WYBIE. JAPAN."

"Well yeah, but come on! If there's a way to get here then there's a way to get back."

Coraline blinked in an unamused manner before sighing. "Touche then." she retorted, folding her arms. "And how exactly do we plan to do that...?"

"Perform the ritual in a different way?"

"Will that bring us home? Or will it take us somewhere worse where all our friends are waiting with another group of ghosts wanting blood and only two or five of us will get out alive? Whether we do this right or not?"

Wybie went silent for a second. "Well that was specific. Was that a reference to something?"

"No. Course not." Coraline retorted, sarcastically. What game had that specific plot line was for Coraline to know and Wybie to forget about.

She looked around, seeing people in kimonos looking around nervously. In case they were to be seen as evil, Wybie pulled Coraline behind the trees, letting them observe.

"Daddy, where do you think he is? Nothing bad's happened to him has it...!?"

"I am sure that he is not far, after all, he wouldn't leave without any reason."

The little girl, wearing a pink kimono with brown hair adorned with decoration was silent, only to shout out. "Kubo are you here...?!"

Coraline turned her glance to three women, two of them rather young while the other was a small but old lady. One of the younger women was wearing a kimono the same shade as Coraline's dyed hair, the same colour as a dark sea. The other had a light red, as if she was bleeding a bit. The third was wearing a general blue with gray hair pulled into a bun, hands on her hips but glancing around with a nervous disposition, as if she was looking for someone. It reminded Coraline and Wybie of when a child would be lost in a shop, and the parent would be looking around for them desperately trying to find them.

Wybie looked at Coraline with a mildly confused expression, but Coraline's eyes as brown as the trees that they were observing these people from were filled with one emotion, wide and raw with it as if it dug down straight to its core.

Curiousity.

"Oh, his grandfather's been worried sick."

"Well if someone harms him then they're going to need to answer to this lady right here...!"

"Kameyo, think realistically here. You're a woman of old age-"

"I may be just 89 but that doesn't mean you need to underestimate me, Maho!"

"Maho, Kameyo, may we please calm down-"

"How am I supposed to help it, Misao? Kubo could have been kidnapped, but we aren't able to say a word about it."

"That's just for tactfulness, Raiden's already worried sick as he is, saying that will make things even more nerve-racking."

"I guess. But somebody's going to have to check."

"It can't be you at your age, Kameyo."

The old woman sighed, turning towards the trees and briefly seeing a curly brown lock of hair peeking out from behind it. She raised an eyebrow with a slight smile, before walking over to it and seeing the two children behind it. Strange in appearance, but strangely enough she didn't seem to give it much notice. "I assume you two heard all of that?" she said, smiling a bit at them in a half wry and half ever so smug manner. It wasn't irritating however.

Wybie glanced at Coraline, before nodding. "Question; who's...who's Kubo...?" he asked.

"He's a boy who lives here, very special though. I know for a fact you can't be from here."

"Why?" Wybie replied, though it was pretty obvious. Whoops.

"As he's probably one of the most well known people in this entire village; a little hero in his right, if I do say so myself...!" Kameyo continued, whispering the last part with a grin.

"So...what happened?" Coraline questioned, though it may have seemed it on the blunt side.

"Pray if any of us know." Kameyo answered, sighing a bit. "No one's been able to figure it out."

Coraline thought hard to herself, Wybie briefly mumbling, "Without a trace...?"

He spoke up before Coraline could even acknowledge what she was thinking about, "Hey...! Maybe we could check out the woods, see if he's just stuck somewhere."

"Now hooooold on there. We don't know what this kid looks like; any kid could just say they're him...!" Coraline pointed out, arms folded as she tugged on Wybie's shoulder.

"He's easy to spot." Kameyo tapped underneath her eye.

"What...?" Coraline muttered, only to figure something out. "So he's got an eye patch or something?"

"Spot on..."

"I'm Wybie, Wybie Lovat." Wybie held out a hand, nudging Coraline.

"Coraline, Coraline Jones.

"Wybie. Coraline. I was right...!" Kameyo said, smiling a bit.

Coraline and Wybie glanced at each other, before the blue-haired girl finished the conversation off, "But anyway; we'll see if we can find...Kubo." she said, as smoothly as she possibly could. What a strange woman, she thought to herself.

Soon enough, the two found themselves walking through a forest that never seemed to end.

"Well, this forest is endless. Nothing but stumps and rocks on a path to nowhere." Coraline commented, folding her arms, jumping over a small wooden stump that made the path an exigent one.

"But hey; maybe we'll figure something out. And man do I wish I had-"

"Your motorcycle so you can stalk somebody else?"

"Hey, I-" Wybie was about to argue, only to see a ball of light, glimmering in the never-ending woodland.

Coraline walked towards it without fear, only for it to fade away, appearing further away, almost out of sight - but it slowly transformed, instead of just being a glowing ball of light, it was more in the shape of a person without their top half.

Coraline couldn't help but follow it, running in the direction of this strange new light. Wybie looked around, sighing a bit before following as well.

Soon a silhouette of a person was created, and by the time they were in a completely new location with a large stone in the shape of a rectangle, seeming to be a gate of sorts, Coraline stopped in front of it as she stared at the figure the colour of gold, more like a gold the colour of the sun rather than the colour of a spirit as opposed to the colour the ghost children had been once they had gotten their eyes back. Coraline noticed a silhouette of a circle near the glowing figure's eye - it was the figure of Kubo.

Wybie put his hand through the gap that the stone made, only for him to disappear.

"Wybie!" Coraline shrieked in horror, running through it before the portal shut behind them.

The two children screamed slightly as they were thrown out of the portal the colour of dark gold. Coraline's arm twitched on the ground, looking around this new area.

Instead of a never ending forest, they seemed to be in the courtyard of a Japanese home which seemed to hold an eternally cold aura in it. Coraline went stiff as she heard something.

Squelch.

Raising her hand, she saw her hand almost be painted in red. Coraline moved, hearing another squelch. Fresh blood.

Wybie got up. "Why is there blood here-" he was about to ask, only to see a gruesome sight ahead of them.

One seemed to be a monkey with white fur, which was dyed with blood. The horrible thing was that it seemed to be as if a sword had cut it, right through the middle. The second seemed to be a beetle, stabbed right through the chest.

Two objects lied on the ground, one was a wooden bow beside the dead beetle, a wooden charm cut in half beside the monkey.

Wybie turned around as Coraline looked at this sight. He could hear something like...children talking. "What the heck is that? Like some horror movie."

Wybie stopped abruptly as he saw a group of people, sitting inside. The first two appeared to be nothing like the decaying and rotting corpses that were lying outside, instead, they were in the form of two humans.

One was a rather attractive lady with a tall stature and a gangly frame with hair that went just down past her shoulders. Wybie couldn't really say the colours, due to the fact that she was golden as well as transparent. Like a ghost...!

He slowly stepped out of the room, returning to Coraline just as she was asking, "Who did this?"

"Uh Coraline? Don't know if you've noticed, but there's a bunch of ghosts in the next room. Just wanting you to know...wait. There's ghosts!?" Wybie said, not truly realizing what was going on until he mentioned the ghosts.

"Duh; you just-" Coraline said, only to fully process it and enter the next room. Three familiar children were sitting there, along with two rather unfamiliar ones.

"The Ghost Children...?" she muttered, watching them talk to these two spirits.

The Sweet Ghost Girl turned to her. "There she is...!" she said, smiling a bit. Coraline noticed that they still had their eyes, but the only question was why they were here as opposed to in their own time.

The two remaining spirits turned in her direction, the tall male rubbing the back of his head. "I wasn't expecting blue, but alright. This is Coraline - the one who got your eyes back?" this figure seemed to be impressed with Coraline's accomplishment.

"Yes!" the three Ghost Children chirped in unison. "But..." they seemed to be sad about something, like they knew something everyone else didn't. Which was most likely the case.

"But...but what...?" the female asked, gently.

"When we lost our eyes...again...someone else helped us. He said his name was Kubo-"

"Kubo!?" the two spirits cried out, clearly stunned and also...fearful.

"But...we think...we think something terrible happened."

Coraline felt a cold breeze brush past her arm, as if to try to pinch it. She looked behind her, seeing Wybie trying to get away from a black smoke.

"Uh...what is THAT!?" Coraline questioned out loud, eyes going wide.

Wybie was too busy trying to catch his breath. The Ghost Children stuck together, the tall ghost girl exclaimed, "Sariatu...! Hanzo...! Why are they coming for you!?-"

"But we aren't~..." two figures appeared from the smoke, both looking identical - they were also transparent, "Dear sister, we're just looking for your precious little nephew...!"

The spirit known as Sariatu was able to recognize the Noh masks almost immediately. It was her Sisters. Wybie looked at the Ghost Children - then at a photo he still had in his pocket, the one with his grandmother and her sister. This sweet little ghost girl resembled his grandmother's sister to a T. Wybie couldn't help but want to speak, but right now they were dealing with two ax-crazy ghosts, so now really was not the time.

"You stay away from him, you witch!" Hanzo shouted, taking out a sword. Sariatu had one of her own. The Ghost Children seemed to be confiding something to one another, and before the Sisters could even get close to Sariatu and Hanzo, the Ghost Children put their hands out, making a small force field, knocking them back. Wybie's eyes widened as he noticed one about to hurt his great aunt, making him make a pretty bad mistake - punching the bottom part of the mask off.

The Sister screamed at him, slapping him hard and about to attack him.

"WYBIE!" Coraline shouted. She saw one of the foundations shaking, clearly it had been knocked into before. Coraline thought of something, she ran behind it and saw a long stone pole. She grabbed the pole, as knocking the foundation down could easily crush Wybie, if it even hit the Sister at all. Coraline thrusted it at her, seeing it barely did a thing. She was suddenly grabbed by the hair, kicking and shrieking angrily at her. She reached desperately into her bag, nothing. She suddenly saw a black bundle slashing at her face, thrown off a few moments later.

Coraline couldn't help but smile with a touch of relief - it was that cat. The Sisters screamed as they were knocked to the side.

Sariatu was trying to get Wybie and Coraline to return to their own world, only for the ground to shatter, Sariatu and Hanzo out of sight.

It was as if they were trapped in a void. Wybie and Coraline stood back to back, the Cat curled around their shoulder. They were in a desolate village once again, the silence ringing through their ears. It made their blood run cold. Wybie saw one of those...things, round the corner, coming at them. Coraline's teeth gritted, glaring as she grasped onto the pole. She wasn't an experienced fighter but she could pack a punch, she slashed the Sister across the arm with the pole, only for a burning pain to punch her in the chest, making the blue-haired girl collapse. Her side stung horribly, thin cuts crossing her back as the Sister pulled the blade out of from her side abruptly with the chain.

Wybie wasn't having much luck with the other sister either. He was being knocked into walls by the minute, but the Cat was by his side, slashing at each one with his claws.

Jumping to her shoulder, the Cat questioned her, "They must think that is meant to hurt me." he remarked with a deep and resonant voice.

"Guess you've been through worse?"

"Of course; after all, I possess nine lives."

"Or is that just because you haven't got one of these in your side!" Coraline blocked another one haphazardly, stumbling a bit as she winced due to her side. Wybie was clasping his arm, running over to her with a limp.

Wybie, trying to be of some assistance to her, glanced at her. "Maybe it wasn't a smart idea to anger ax-crazy ghosts...!" he muttered.

Coraline grinned slightly at him, responding, "And who's the one who did that?"

"Well you don't encounter the ghost of your great aunt every day now do you...!?"

"Guess not!"

Unfortunately, this distraction caused another injury, knocking the three back into a row of pillars. Well, the Cat got off scot-free.

"I must ask, why do you find the need to fight?" one of the Sisters questioned them - though it was more like a taunt, confirmed by the laugh that came after.

Coraline gave Wybie a fierce look - don't mention Kubo.

"Why should we tell you? You attacked us!" Coraline retorted, rolling her eyes.

"After all...you are just mortals."

"Just mortals - what the heck does she mean by that...!?" Wybie turned to Coraline, confused.

"Were you paying attention at all when we were talking about Japanese mythology!?" Coraline replied, sighing and shaking her head. Don't mention Kubo.

The Sister who had harmed Coraline's side suddenly chuckled a bit. "Oh, were you maybe trying to stop us from seeing our nephew?"

Coraline and Wybie were caught on a line here - they both knew that. Neither of them were really the best at lying. Something told them that Kubo was the nephew - seeing how they seemed to be searching for him and how he had conveniently disappeared.

Though if Kubo was kidnapped, it couldn't have been these two, or else they wouldn't have been here searching for him in the first place.

Coraline suddenly seemed to flash in and out of reality - she was seeing something. She saw a boy, exactly like the boy with the golden silhouette that had lead them to the fortress in the first place. He was crawling around a horrifically familiar location - another world.

"Oh no." Coraline mumbled, finally awake. She knew where to go to bring this boy back - but they needed to get out of this situation at first.

Wybie seemed to be thinking of something. "Guess who's got an idea to beat these two?"

"And guess who's got an idea of where to go next?"

The two got up to their feet, only for the three Ghost Children to be trying to come to them. The Sweet Ghost girl reached out, Wybie grabbing her hand best he could. She turned, before putting her hand out. "You know, miss...sir...I didn't realize I could do this until we were brought here."

"Quick question; who did bring you here?"

"I'm not sure who...but after we lost our eyes once again, trapped in that room, he returned them to us. I think you'd like him, miss."

As they were protected by this force field, something seemed to be subduing the Sisters' power, making them return to the spirit world. It was the Ghost Children.

Coraline never would have thought that they could have had this much power, but here she was, looking at it happening right now. It seemed their hits had meant something, as it was likely if she and Wybie had just taken a beating they would have been able to overpower the three ghost children without fail.

A bright light began to appear, blinding Coraline and Wybie. Staring flatly as the two children covered their eyes due to the radiance before them, he muttered, "Now only one more thing."

At first, Coraline and Wybie were unaware of where they were, Wybie especially. Coraline recognized it a few seconds after she regained her grip of reality.

"The Other World..." Coraline whispered, getting to her feet.

"Is...is this where you ended up?" Wybie turned to her.

Coraline nodded, but she began to question more. "But...why is this still here!? We dropped the hand into the well, remember? So this shouldn't be here-"

Wybie heard heavy breathing, someone round the corner. A boy suddenly leaned on the wall at the end, as if he'd been running for his life.

This was when they realized who this was - Kubo. He seemed to be slightly drowsy, as if he had just woken up. His one eye scrolled up, taking in these two. To him, they looked extremely strange. To Coraline and Wybie, Kubo looked normal in Feudal Japan.

For a few moments, they just seemed to be looking at each other. Coraline was the first to speak, now irritated by the silence. "Are you...who...we've been hearing about?"

Kubo seemed slightly confused. "Hang on, who are you...?!"

"Coraline. Coraline Jones." the blue-haired girl announced, putting her hand out, ignoring the red that stained her usually bright yellow raincoat. "That's Wybie by the way."

"I'm...I'm Kubo." he said, walking towards her.

"And yes; I'm aware of the red on my side," Coraline confirmed - seeing Kubo was about to open his mouth to bring her attention to it. If anyone was aware of it, it was her. She could still feel that wretched stinging there, but she had to put up with it, no mater how much it burned.

"Cora-line. Wy-bie." Kubo muttered, not used to names like that. It did make sense, of course, seeing how his world was much more different than Coraline and Wybie's.

Whatever thoughts they had were cut short however by a loud, ear-piercing and furious shriek. Kubo's eye went wide with fear - he may have managed to escape that sleeping prison, to escape his powers being used against him, but he still wasn't out of this world.

"It's her." Coraline said, firmly. She went to the forefront, but Kubo stood beside her after she heard a little pluck. An instrument, a shamisen.

Kubo had a small smile after doing so, before getting ready for the creature they were about to face.


	3. Chapter 3

Wybie's eyes went as wide as the buttons that would be where the eyes would be. However, the Other Mother didn't even have those.

Coraline and Kubo glared at the Other Mother, not even needing to say a word at first. The Other Mother however, without her eyes, couldn't even realize that it was that same girl who had troubled her just five months ago. Shrieking in pure fury, she slashed at him with a spider-like legs, cutting Coraline's cheek, causing a red streak to appear across it.

The wood below them began to rise, splitting apart. A giant web was forming below, Wybie was the first one to see it. "Might wanna notice the WEBBBB!" the curly-haired boy shouted, only to drop into it himself.

Kubo and Coraline too busy focusing on avoiding the attacks coming at them.

Kubo jumped onto a piece of wood, before plunging himself at a large piece sticking out from the ceiling, kicking the Other Mother in the face.

Unfortunately for him, she was still on the move, his red robes tearing as he was brought down to the floor, crying out in pain as his spine burned. He couldn't stop the cry that came from him as he was thrown into a web, but he knew how to escape it, remembering the first time. Yanking his limbs away from it, despite the stinging that ran through them, he grabbed his shamisen and began to play despite the fact that he was beginning to run out of paper.

Coraline couldn't help but watch this magic unfold, granted, only for just a second. And here is where she'd admit right now that this concept was insane. A Japanese boy from the past in another version of her home world with a magical shamisen.

Seemed fair enough, considering she'd seen ghosts, spider-like women, rat circuses, a world with people who had buttons for eyes, Japanese ghosts with Noh masks...you know, the usual.

She began to climb the web, yanking Wybie up - luckily for him, he wasn't as badly trapped. Kubo made his way up as quickly as he could. That was when they saw it.

The very few bits left of this world now beginning to crumble.

Time definitely wasn't on their side - this place seemed ready to collapse, the last few powers the Other Mother might have been able to keep using Kubo now fading away as he got closer to escaping.

"YOU CAN'T GO!" shrieked the Other Mother, her legs grasping desperately at their legs, beginning to mangle Wybie's coat as he lost grip of Coraline's hand, almost being pulled to his doom.

He let out a scream, before grabbing onto the web. He looked up at Coraline, "What did you do again!?"

"Just shake it...!" Coraline yelled, beginning to do so herself. Wybie followed suit, getting the Other Mother off.

Just as they began to crawl to the door, to some realm of safety, Kubo felt something pull.

Pluck.

His shamisen! He looked down, seeing a leg pulling, one that had gotten behind his strings.

The last part of his mother and father that he had.

Kubo couldn't just let them be torn from him, sent into a void where he could never get them back. He jumped back down, reaching desperately for them - unintentionally back into the clutches of the Other Mother, who cackled loudly as she gripped onto the red robes, grasping his arms in a tight hold. He let out a yell of fear, struggling as much as he could. He wasn't going down without a fight, that was for sure.

Looking directly at him, Coraline questioned him, "Are you crazy?!" making it clear she was asking because he went back for the two strings of his shamisen, clearly unaware of what they actually held. She reached out for Kubo's hand, only for the spider's web to begin stretching.

The boy with the shamisen managed to get his arm free, jabbing the Beldam with his elbows as hard as he possibly could - and right in her weak spot as well.

Kubo kicked repeatedly, getting free as he grasped tightly onto the two strings he held so close to him, going quite quickly. Coraline looked down, seeing Wybie kicking the Other Mother in the face one last time, however, considering the picture she didn't say anything about it - not at the time at least, seeing how trying to escape from the Other Mother was something you should focus on more than a friend giving her another kick in the face.

Coraline opened that door, just barely managing to close it as they appeared near that same door in Coraline's home. Kubo re-attached the two strings, but the moment he finished, Coraline punched his arm. "Are you actually insane!?" she said, sharply. "You went back down there for two strings!?"

"Yes; I did. You don't know the full story, you know." Kubo said, surprisingly calm for someone who had just been shouted at. He got to his feet, feeling a light form behind him.

Wybie couldn't help but question... "Where did that portal come from!?"

Kubo smiled a bit - magic...was never going to be an easy thing to understand. "Honestly; even I don't know. And that's just the least of it," he told them, before stepping through with a gentle smile before he seemed to disappear, knocking a few papers back.

Wybie looked at Coraline for a moment, blinking. "What the heck just happened?"

Coraline stared at where the portal had once been. "Heck if I know." she stood up, before getting to her feet, Wybie soon following her.

Well...that had been an interesting experience! For all three of them, actually.


End file.
